Topic: Principals & School Leaders

Overview

Principals & School Leaders

In the last century, school principals were expected to focus primarily on management and administration. Today, schools need instructional leaders who improve the learning and achievement of both students and teachers in their schools. SREB offers school improvement, professional development and technical assistance to serve this objective.

Blog post Jon Schmidt-DavisSREB Senior Research Associate

The Eisenhower Matrix: A Tool to Help School Leaders Focus Their Time

The Eisenhower Matrix can help busy leaders make the most of their limited time to get things done. During World War II the matrix helped General Dwight Eisenhower plan and carry out the most complex military operation in history, the D-Day invasion of Normandy. He used it as a tool to ensure that he spent his time on the right work.

Blog post Matthew SmithSREB Research Associate

In This Together: How States Foster Safe Learning Environments

As legislatures convene regular sessions, we at SREB have observed an uptick in bills focused on school safety. Some propose dramatic changes in the way school districts hire and train security personnel, develop emergency plans, or address students’ mental and emotional health. Others make technical changes to standing laws in order to lower the barriers districts face in creating safe learning environments.

Spotlight

Classroom Time
Educator Effectiveness Spotlight

Competing priorities and increasing responsibilities mean principals are finding it harder to spend quality time in classrooms, in addition to formal observations. One Tennessee principal is navigating these challenges in thoughtful and productive ways.

Blog post Jon Schmidt-DavisDirector, SREB Learning-Centered Leadership Program
Michelle Lampert

Unsung Heroes of America’s Schools
Assistant principals are critical to school success

Assistant principals supervise the hallways and the lunchrooms. They observe teachers and coordinate testing. They serve as the first line of response for discipline referrals, guide wayward students with humor and compassion — and do their best to make their principals look good.

It’s a lot, but most assistant principals truly love their jobs and know that what they do is critical to their school’s success.

Blog post By Jon Schmidt-Davis

Highly Qualified Turnaround Leaders Emerge in Florida

The Florida Turnaround Leaders Program is a big hit in Florida that will ultimately result in better principals, better schools, and higher-performing students. “This program has provided the best professional development I have ever experienced in my 25 years as an educator,” said one participant.

Publication Jon Schmidt-Davis 201244 Pages(12V10)

Turnaround High School Principals
Recruit, Prepare and Empower Leaders of Change

The publication takes an in-depth look at the kinds of principals required to turn around the lowest-performing 5 to 10 percent of public high schools in America. Schools stuck at the bottom of the performance chart need first-rate principals with the motivation, vision, skill and commitment to make dramatic improvements in schools and student achievement. The report describes how we can identify, prepare and support these turnaround principals.

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Publication Jon Schmidt-Davis 201152 Pages(11V19)

Who’s Next?
Let's Stop Gambling on School Performance and Plan for Principal Succession

Each year, more than 18,000 principals in our nation’s public schools leave their jobs. Decades of school leadership research make it clear that these vacancies must be filled immediately and must be filled with school leaders who have the strength of character, the knowledge about learning and the leadership savvy to thrive in what is arguably education’s most challenging job. But who is next?

Publication 201084 pages(07V10)

We Know What Works in the Middle Grades
Smart District Leadership Can Make It Happen

In this report, SREB compares schools in the MMGW initiative that have more fully implemented the MMGW research-based design with others that have been defined as low-implementation schools. The report shows clear differences in the achievement levels and academic success of these two groups of schools. The report also shows that dynamic, sustainable middle grades reform is far more likely to occur when district leaders, principal leaders and teacher leaders are all committed to the same improvement goals and means of achieving them.

Blog post By Jon Schmidt-Davis

Florida Middle School Creates Success Academy

Pinellas Park Middle School is about as challenging a school as you can find in Florida. The state has assigned it a grade of D for the past several years. All of its students receive free lunch. Twenty-three percent of its students have already been in some form of drop-out prevention program prior to enrolling at Pinellas Park.

Publication August 201064 Pages(10V16)

The Three Essentials
Improving Schools Requires District Vision, District and State Support, and Principal Leadership

This report describes the findings of SREB’s study of the role of the district office in creating the working conditions that principals need to improve teacher effectiveness and student performance. The Three Essentials of school improvement described in the report emerged from close observations of the inner workings of seven school districts, as SREB’s Learning-Centered Leadership Program sought to answer this essential question: What are the conditions school districts can create that make it possible for principals to be more effective in leading school improvement?

Publication 2 Pages

Developing Collaborative University-District Partnerships to Prepare Learning-Centered Principals

The purpose of a university-district partnership for the preparation and development of principals is to provide all schools leadership that results in improved student learning. In order to be successful, both parties in the partnership will have to relinquish control over areas which have traditionally been the sole responsibility of one of the parties.

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Publication Cheryl Gray, Betty Fry, Gene Bottoms and Kathy O'Neill200796 Pages(07V05)

Good Principals Aren’t Born – They’re Mentored
Are We Investing Enough to Get the School Leaders We Need?

Good Principals Aren’t Born – They’re Mentored draws on survey data from a sample of seasoned principal mentors who have guided interns in university-based principal preparation programs in the SREB region. This report lays out a course of action for policymakers and leaders of universities and school districts to ensure that every beginning principal comes to the job fully prepared to make a difference in teaching and learning.